Sketches
by bakababe
Summary: "The problem is," she stated with a short pause, "That I don't think I have a picture of just Mello. Every time I sketched him Matt was also in the picture" Aizawa and Mogi come to pick up the drawings of Mello and Near, but who is this secret Matt?


Roger stood in the open doorway of one in the girl's dormitory rooms, staring hesitantly at the sight of a petite blond girl surrounded by open cans of paint, crumpled up papers, broken canvases, pencils, and tootsie roll wrappers. The girl, Linda, was making deliberate brushstrokes on a thick canvas in front of her, her face so close to the painting Roger was surprised she could even see what she was doing. "Linda?" He called out softly, looking over his shoulder at the two Japanese men behind him, one with curly hair and a seemingly permanent scowl, and one that was tall and stocky who hadn't said a word since they arrived yesterday. Linda made no move from her canvas, and it took Roger a while to notice the two hot pink earbuds in her head. "Linda!" His tone was now forceful, the stress of dealing with a bunch of genii leaking into his voice. Said girl whipped her head around, her face masked in annoyance.

"What?" She spit out, the obvious distress of being interrupted apparent in her girlish voice, while her hands reached up to rip the earbuds out.

"These two men," Roger stepped aside and indicated to Mr. Aizawa and Mr. Mogi who stepped into the room with slight nods in Linda's general direction, "are from the NPA, they've come to talk to you for help with their investigation." Linda stared at the two imposing men in confusion, she was obviously not the smartest at Wammys, spending all her time surrounded by art, and she flunked out of even the beginners class of deduction and observation class, forever clearing her of any career in the criminal justice field.

"Investigation? Roger, shouldn't they be talking to Alias? She may not be Near, Mello, or Matt, but she wasn't number four for nothing."

As the one who went by Aizawa made a move to speak, Mogi cut in, "Matt?" Although it was probably directed at Roger, Mogi stared at Linda with an unreadable expression.

"The number three student, he was close with our number two student, Mello, but he is not available to talk." Roger mumbled the last part, twisting his wrinkled hands together nervously, giving Linda a look meant to silence whatever elaboration she had planned to give. Mogi turned to Roger and nodded, before nudging Aizawa in the arm to continue.

"We actually didn't come here in need of intelligence, we were hoping you could provide us with a portrait of Near and Mello, it's part of our investigation." Aizawa's eyes would flicker to Roger now and again, for he had not been pleased with the idea of giving the officers clues to the boys identity. Linda's eyes mouth fell open at the thought of the police needed her artistic abilities for the Kira case.

"Yeah, sure, hold on a sec." Linda jumped up from her stool and rushed over to a cabinet filled with overstuffed portfolios, carefully pulling out the three largest ones, a white, a black, and a red. She flipped through the white one, all seeming to be pictures of a white haired boy surrounded by toys. After a minute of rummaging through the drawings she locates a pencil sketch of the boy's head in great detail, seeming more like a photo then a drawing.

Aizawa accepted the sketch from her outstretched hand, his eyes widening at the detail of her work. He managed to mumble a low "You're very good.." before returning to staring down at the sketch. Linda took the compliment, beaming with such a huge smile it seemed her small face couldn't stand it. "Thanks!" then adding in with a sly smirk ,"It only took a few minutes to draw." Before putting the white folder back on the shelf, only to stare at the black and red folder with a contemplating look, her fingers flitting back and forth between the two.

Mogi peered over his friends shoulder for a few seconds before turning to Roger, curiosity the only emotion shining in his dark gaze. He nodded his head toward the sketch in Aizawa's hands before speaking, "Who?"

Roger blinked at him blankly, before grumbling to himself about how no one knew how to talk anymore and sighed. "That one's Near, the first in line of succession at Wammys." Roger frowned even more as he turned to look at Linda, who was looking like she was about to burst while she sat staring at the two folders. "Linda, hurry up please. These men have to go, just open one of Mello's folders and give them the damn drawing." Roger snarled the last bit, children always did manage to wear on his patience.

The blond haired girl in question snapped her head up in agitation before curling her upper lip in a scowl at her care taker. "Wait a minute! One of these isn't Mello's, I just can't figure out which folder to look through first!" She nodded to herself, thinking that her reason was completely justifiable as to why she would not look for the drawing.

Roger was beginning to feel a vein pulse in his forehead, made even worse so by the fidgeting of those two men right behind him. He tried to keep his voice from shaking with anger as he glared down the young girl. "Linda. If one of them is not Mello's folder, then put it back. We do not need another student. Just him. That's it. So please select a photo of Mello and hand it over so I can get the hell out of this dormitory where it smells like flowers and over-strong perfume."

Linda let out a laugh at the old man, before sitting back down on her stool and facing the trio of men in front of her. "The problem is," she stated with a short pause, "That I don't think I have a picture of just Mello. Every time I sketched him Matt was also in the picture, and even if you wanted one I couldn't give a photo of the two of them away." She ended her rant with a wistful sigh, a content smile on her face. Roger however, did not take her speech so well. At the utterance of Matt, he went completely rigid, and refused to look at the agents behind him, who had turned to look at him right when they heard the name for the second time today as well. "I rarely ever saw them apart, so I never drew them apart. Unless one of them was - oh!" The young artist became wide eyed at her own realization, before diving back into the black folder and rummaging around until she found a sketch of Mello's smirking face, pulling it out victoriously with a loud "Aha!"

She whirled around to stare at the confused Japanese men, holding out her hand proudly at her find. "I remember I drew that whenever Matt was in the infirmary after falling out of a tree," she rambled. "Boy was Mello crazy! I remember when one of the nurses had to-" Her constant flow of words was stopped when Roger loudly announced in a final tone, "Well! That settles it! You have what you came for, but I'm terribly busy so I must escort you out immediately!" In a flurry of strength Linda did not know the old geezer to possess, he shoved the two men firmly out the door before turning around and giving Linda a glare that promised punishment later, and left her alone in her room, dazed and slightly confused.

The walk back to the mens rental car was quiet, and just as Roger was letting himself feel relieved over their lack of questions, the one known as Aizawa decided to give into his curiosity. "Who is the Matt Linda was talking about?" He peered at Roger with a suspicious glare, folding his arms across his chest while Mogi paused with one foot in the car door.

"He's a student, and a friend of Mello's, but seeing as he has nothing to do with your investigation, you should not worry yourself with him." Roger could see Aizawa was about to object to his short answer, so he steeled the man with an imposing glare, satisfied when he only grumbled and got into his car without another remark.

As they drove away, Aizawa stared at the orphanage, his eyes widening in confusion at the sight of a red haired boy sitting on the top of the fence of the orphanage, smoking a cigarette and staring at the car with dead eyes. Aizawa felt the chills on the back of his head just staring at the kid, so he turned around and pulled out the drawings, memorizing the faces of the two geniuses.

Roger sat slumped over his desk, head in his shaking hands as he listened to the voice message left by the head nurse. Matt refused any anti-depressants given to him, which would make this the fourteenth unsuccessful time to help the boy. Roger would never understand what Matt was to Mello, since the boy upped and left with no tears as far as he could tell, but it was painstakingly clear to see just how much Mello was to Matt, if the complete unawareness of his surroundings and his life was anything to go by. Roger was surprised that he already hadn't offed himself, if he was so depressed. Roger sighed as he realized Matt would never kill himself on the off chance Mello ever came back. The chances of that happening seems slimmer everyday. For now he was just content that he managed to keep the NPA away from him, he didn't know what their questioning would do to him mentally.

Linda, surrounded by the contents of the black and red folder, was sitting teary eyed on her floor, clutching a large piece of paper to her chest. "Oh Matty.." she sniffled, looking down at the portrait she had taken just months ago of a laughing Matt on top of a smiling Mello's back. "One just isn't supposed to be without the other." And as she looked at the boy sitting on top of the fence, staring into the darkness of the night in the direction where Mello was last seen, she knew just how heartbreakingly true that was.


End file.
